PlayStation 4 queues begin to form ahead of Friday's UK launch

Sony says gamers who have not pre-ordered will be able to buy new console from the PS4 Lounge in London's Covent Garden

Imran Chowdhury, Rishaan Chowdhury, Csaba Toth, Taylor Pelling and Umar Farooq have a long wait to get their hands on the PlayStation 4 in London's Covent Garden. Photograph: Jack Taylor/National Pictures

British gamers eager to be among the first to get their hands on the new PlayStation 4 have already started queueing in central London – two days before its official launch.

The console goes on sale in the UK on Friday, but Sony has said people who have not already pre-ordered will be able to buy one at a midnight launch event in Covent Garden.

Launch day pre-orders for the console sold out in August. Those on sale at the PS4 Lounge event – on a first come, first served basis from midnight – are believed to be the last available before Christmas without pre-ordering.

Gamers queueing for their consoles will be able to watch a performance by the rapper Tinie Tempah and will be given pizza and energy drinks to keep them awake

Sony's UK & Ireland managing director, Fergal Gara, said:"We really wanted to offer some way for people to buy on launch day, and this is a fantastic opportunity for anyone that hasn't already pre-ordered to get their hands on a PS4 on day one.

"The excitement in the run-up to our UK launch has been phenomenal, and we want to thank gamers for their support by giving them the chance to take a PS4 home at the earliest opportunity."

Martyn Gibbs, CEO of the retailer Game, said the excitement for the PS4 launch was at fever pitch: "We're stepping into the next generation of gaming and this really is a fundamental shift for the industry," he said. "The PS4 launch is going to surpass anything PlayStation has done before – our pre-order numbers are around four times higher than the PS3 and we're seeing those numbers grow every day."

The PS4 is billed as being 10 times faster than its predecessor, the PlayStation 3, which was released in 2006. It has a Blu-Ray/DVD optical drive, digital video recording, 8GB DDR5 RAM, an 8 core single-chip x86 AMD Jaguar CPU, AMD Radeon graphics core next engine GPU, 500GB removable hard drive and internal power supply.

The new console launches across the UK on November 29, priced at £349, with over 400 stores hosting special midnight openings on 28 November.